FROM WATER TO OIL

I painted in watercolour for over 30 years and once in awhile I decide that one of my old watercolour compositions might work well in oil.  The original watercolour for the oil below was painted in the mid 1980's.  The subject is a group of rowboats pulled up on the beach in St. Ives, Cornwall.  I have always loved painting old boats and enjoyed trying to capture the transition between dry and wet sand. It worked very well in watercolour and I think I managed to get the same effect with oil. 

Five Small Boats, oil, 18x18

OUT OF THE MIST

Last week I met with friends to paint at a local beach.  A lovely sunny autumn morning.  Or so we thought.  A few hundred yards from the sea, we hit a wall of fog.  Not quite what we expected but it was very beautiful.  The friend who picked the spot insisted that there were several islands and a shoreline with houses out there in the mist but we couldn't see a thing when we first arrived. 

It was interesting to see what emerged from the mist over the next few hours

POCHADE BOX

A few years ago I came across an old book by Trevor Chamberlain in which he talks about, and shows photos of, a pochade box he inherited. I love boxes, especially wooden ones, and I fell in love with it. When I showed the book to my friend Sig he was so enthusiastic about it he decided to make one for me.  And one for himself..... and another for his daughter.... by the time the other members of our painting group, the Al Frescoes, saw
the box I reckon he could have gone into business.

This box is perfect for painting in the car - I keep it loaded with small tubes of my primary colours, several chopped off brushes and some 6x8 1/8" panels.  Sometimes I use it outdoors for a quick study, resting it on my knee.

Using my pochade for a rowboat study at the Marina

Sig Pederson, painting with the Al Frescoes

QUICK SKETCHES......

I'm posting a few examples of some drawings and thumbnails and the paintings that followed.  I do a lot of these.  Sometimes just a quick sketch, sometimes a whole pile of thumbnails that often are so scribbly I am the only one who can tell what is happening. I'm just working out a design trying to decide if the idea will work.  They often don't but sometimes I make a painting.....

 

 

 

ENJOYING THE SPRING AND SUMMER

We have had some really great weather here in Victoria and I have been out painting a fair bit, sometimes by myself but often with friends.  I can't think of a more enjoyable way to spend a day!  I'm posting some random photos of me - well, actually pics of my easel as I rarely remember to ask someone to get a shot of me painting - and friends and a few of the lovely locations around here.

Oak Bay Marina

 

Des Bond watching 'master' Ken Faulks
painting a view of Two Tree Island

 Parry Bay with Ken Faulks, Jim McFarland,
 Keith Hiscock and Desiree Bond

Deborah Czernecky and I decide to paint Esquimalt
Lagoon one late afternoon. The wind came up and
nearly blew us away.  Just did a quick 6x8

One morning down at Oak Bay Marina

With Ken Faulks at Willows Beach looking towards Oak Bay Marina

A grey day out on the Peninsula at the top of Martindale Road.

One glorious Sunday morning I went down to Dallas Road
and did this study looking towards Ogden Point.



Out at High Oaks Farm with the Al Frescoes plein air group.

At Clover Point with Ken Faulks, Adam Noonan,
 Jim McFarland and Desiree Bond

 

A FUN DAY OUT

A week or so ago, Keith Hiscock invited us up to his new place near Crofton for a morning out painting.  Ken Faulks, Desiree Bond, Jim McFarland and I had a tour of Keith's fantastic new studio and then we all headed to a nearby spot Keith had earmarked for us to paint.

Lovely countryside, reasonable weather and good company:

4TH ANNUAL PLEIN AIR SALON COMPETITION

My painting, Calm Before the Storm, has just won first place in the landscape category in the April/May Plein Air Salon Competition. http://deborahtilby.blogspot.ca/

This painting was done from a study I started on the spot while on a three month painting trip to Ireland and England.  I just finished blocking it in when the sky turned black and I barely managed to get everything packed up before the torrential rain started.  I finished it later in the studio. 

Block In for Calm Before the Storm



Calm Before the Storm  16x16